Circuit board inspection using a range camera

A high-speed, high-accuracy three-dimensional (3-D) range camera that possesses sufficient speed and accuracy to inspect circuit boards in real time is presented. The architecture of the system is briefly described, and the algorithms used to make quantitative presolder measurements, including the orientations and lengths of leads and the locations and shapes of holes, are examined in detail. Since the unit runs in real time and performs sophisticated image analysis functions, considerable emphasis in the algorithm development was placed on the ability to partition tasks between general-purpose computers and array processors.< >